


Unspoken Rule

by morningwitch



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Boys In Love, M/M, bathtub kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:43:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morningwitch/pseuds/morningwitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, when Jean was feeling especially generous, he let Eren in the room while he bathed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unspoken Rule

Eren had been watching a nature documentary when Jean walked in.

 

His eye was black and his nose was a mess of blood, hands stained from holding it up on the way to the apartment.

“Shit, what happened?” Eren jumped up, grabbing Jean’s hands and pulling them away from his face so he could inspect the damage. He winced.

“Tried to pick up a girl, turns out she had a boyfriend.” Jean shrugged, grimacing. “I think I broke a rib.”

Eren rolled his eyes, sighing in annoyance.

“You gotta stop doing that, dude. One day you’re gonna end up dead because of it.”

Eren pulled Jean’s shirt off, inspecting the already forming bruise on his ribcage, poking and prodding it while Jean said ‘pain’ or ‘no pain.’ They were all used to this by now, taking care of each other was second nature.

Even though it didn’t seem like it, Eren cared a lot about Jean. He didn’t used too, but once they moved in together, they’d both mellowed out on the fighting and smashing each other’s faces in. At least, most of the time. Jean was still loud and obnoxiously rude, but so was Eren, and they learned to balance each other out.

“I’m gonna take a bath.” Jean winced as Eren poked him in the wrong place on the bruise. After a seconds thought, he tilted his head and asked “You coming with?”

Eren smiled, grateful.

Sometimes, when Jean was feeling especially generous, he let Eren stay in the room while he bathed. They’d developed a routine of sorts. One stripped down while the other ran the water. They never went past boxers though, for some odd reason. Eren had seen Jean naked several times (most by accident) but it was a weird unspoken rule in the bathroom.

He sat down on the floor as Jean slipped into the water, closing his eyes and sighing. He was happiest in the bath. They never really talked when this happened, usually Jean just turned on some weird shitty music that he liked and zoned out. Eren didn’t mind. He liked it, actually.

Jean yawned loudly, carding wet fingers through his hair and lighting up a cigarette. Smoke writhed from his pale lips, curling up to the ceiling where the upper window was open, letting in the sounds of the street below. It was oddly soothing, Eren thought, sitting on the floor while Jean took a bath, hearing the water move and the sounds of cars from three stories up.

They were lucky, in a way, to find an apartment like this one. Even though the tiles were cracked and everything was dirty, it was home. A shitty, dirty home with horrible neighbors, but then again, home was wherever Jean was.

“What are you thinking about, Jeager?” Jean asked quietly, looking up at the stars through the window.

Eren realized too late that he’d been staring at Jean again. He shook his head gently, looking away. Eren was thinking about a lot of things. He was thinking about the slope of Jean’s chest and how nicely that’d fit against his own, and he was thinking of the way Jean would smile and the way it made him feel. But he couldn’t say things like that. Not here, not to Jean.

That was another unspoken rule with him and the bathroom. There was no “getting mopey or philosophical” as Jean put it.

“I was thinking that you should stop smoking.” He replied instead, cracking his knuckles and leaning back against the cracked wall to stare at the boy in the bath.

Jean laughed, and Eren listened to it, feeling his heart warm at the sound. Jean didn’t laugh often.

“I’ll make you a deal, Eren,” Jean leaned over the edge of the bath, dripping water onto the floor. “If you find something as addicting as this nicotine, then I’ll quit for you.”

He settled back into the bath, laughing softly to himself, thinking for sure that there was nothing on the planet more addicting than nicotine.

But Eren knew better.

Eren thought for a second before standing up slowly.

“I got an idea.” He said gently, stepping into the bath with him. Jean leaned back, watching Eren carefully. He didn’t know if this was another unspoken rule that he was breaking, but he didn’t really care at that moment. Eren kneeled down, not minding that his boxers were getting wet, and delicately pulled the cigarette from between Jean’s lips, snuffing it out on the ashtray. He heard Jean’s breath catch in his throat.

Eren leaned forward slowly, making sure that he didn’t push him away, before pressing their mouths together. Jean’s lips were soft, and there was the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Almost immediately, Eren felt something blooming in his chest, something warm and lovely, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Jean deepened the kiss, turning his head slightly. Soon enough they were kissing like they fought, angrily and fiercely, water spilling onto the floor as Eren pulled Jean’s head back, exposing his neck and kissing down his jaw.

Jean’s body shook when he kissed his collarbone, and Eren grinned against his skin. He pressed his lips to the hollow of his throat, feeling hands come up and tangle themselves in his own hair. Beads of water rolled down Eren’s back, and they broke apart, both breathing heavily.

“C’mere.” Jean mumbled, lips spit slicked and red, pupils blown wide. He extended an arm, pulling Eren against his chest quietly. “You know I hate when you pull shit like that.”

Eren looked up at him, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, before closing his eyes and draping his arm across Jean’s chest.

“I know.”

Eren could feel Jean look at him, and when he spoke, there was a warmth in his voice that hadn’t been there in a long, long time.

“I don’t mind now.”

“I know.” Eren smiled into his chest.

They sat like that until their fingers were wrinkled and Eren had memorized the cracks in the ceiling and the pattern in which Jean’s heart beat. They didn’t talk much after that, but they watched each other when they thought no one was looking. Eren wanted to kiss him again, but was afraid. Jean was strange in that way, but Eren wanted to kiss him more than ever now. He wanted to kiss the cracks in his knuckles and his crooked nose, he wanted to kiss the parts of him that made him so angry all the time and the parts that made him so sad.

“Quit for me.” Eren whispered into the skin of Jean’s jaw.

There was silence for a second before he replied.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> For Sage


End file.
